I live in the foothills of Mt. Rainier in Washington State.....no matter where I go I have steep hills, its quite aggravating really. My gearing is 22x32x44 & 32-12 if that tells you anything. I'd rather carry the cookies so I could eat them but I see your point. You are correct, a lighter bike is easier to climb with if that is your goal. My two friends and I just rode a very short 8 mile blast to the local feed store. I ride a 30+ pound bike with 900 gram tires and they ride bikes around 24-26 pounds with narrow 350 gram tires but we have varying abilities and body weight along with various knee conditions so if one of us gets ahead we wait for the others and don't worry about it. This time we stopped for beer and took them back to our starting point and enjoyed a cold frothy beverage coupled with casual conversation while dodging mosquitoes in the cool evening air. Overall a very pleasant and satisfying time. These scenarios are what makes riding with others enjoyable for me. If I ride with folks who get cranky when they have to wait for me or who leave me in their dust all the time I just ride by myself. As I get older its more about a good time with good friends. We seldom, if ever, talk of bike weights and except for some friendly competitiveness once in a while we really just prefer to ride and get our tired old selves moving. I'd like a Roadeo but its not built to handle my weight so I'll ride my slow bike with big tires and carry the cookies......and the beer! = )
On Aug 4, 2:01 pm, Anne Paulson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 12:51 AM, charlie <[email protected]> wrote: > > What I am talking about is minor weight differences (as the original > > poster mentioned) like between a 23 pound bike and say a 29 pounder. > > Those differences can't amount to much > > OK, let's say I compare my 23 pound bike with that same 23 pound bike, > but with six pounds of... something... added. Food. Cookies, say. I > and my twin will ride side by side, me on the unladen bike, OtherAnne > on the bike with the cookies. > -- > OK, we're climbing our favorite hill, which usually takes us around 30 > minutes. Say that I, with all of my bike clothes and everything, weigh > 170 pounds. So I have a total of 193 pounds on the unladen bike, and > OtherAnne has 199 pounds, about a three percent difference. Air > resistance is negligible at climbing speed < 10 mph; speed is linear > on total weight. > > I drop OtherAnne like a bad habit. She's over a minute behind; I can't > even see her. By the time she finally makes it to the top, I start > making references to having to use a calendar to time her. (Of course, > I can't have a cookie while I'm waiting, because she is carrying > them.) > > Where I live, cyclists climb a lot of long hills that take over half > an hour, because the flats have traffic and stoplights. If I'm giving > away over a minute on every hill to my friends with lighter bikes, > that might not be vitally important, but it's not nothing, either. > > -- Anne Paulson > > My hovercraft is full of eels -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
